


earn your c support

by jonphaedrus



Category: Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
Genre: Gen, Nagamas, Nagamas 2k15, erk and serra as best friends is so important to me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:26:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5720956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/pseuds/jonphaedrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Then how come you’re walking around like you just got rained on instead of just getting sand in your ears?”</p>
<p>“Because...” Erk sighed, awkwardly, and scrubbed at the back of his neck. “I don’t know, Serra. It’s stupid. Go bother someone else.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	earn your c support

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Utz](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Utz).



> i will admit this was actually really difficult because im so used to writing shippy fe fanfic and its been so long since i played fe7...but i really enjoyed writing this! it was a lot of fun :) erk is a smol precious babbu and i want to feed him cookies and watch pent Megadad at him

There was sand everywhere. The was sand in his hair, in his shoes, down the back of his cloak against his neck, sand in his loincloth, sand in his eyes, sand in his _mouth_.

“Catch!” Serra called over, and Erk looked up from shaking sand out of his hair to catch the canteen she threw, almost dropping it on the sand. She had acquiesced to the burning sun by unwrapping her scarf and laying it over her shoulders and arms to keep from getting burned. For once, Erk was almost jealous of her light clothing

He was sweltering under his cloak. 

Erk uncapped the canteen and drank a few gulps before handing it back to Serra, who watched him for a moment, her brow furrowed, as they trudged on in the sand. Far ahead of them, Erk could see Pent in deep conversation with Eliwood, and he sighed, kept trudging on.

Serra made an impatient noise and looped one arm around his, her elbow jostling against his chest. “You keep looking at Lord Pent like you’re in love and pining, like Eliwood looks at Ninian, or something.” 

“That’s not—“ Erk’s voice cracked out louder than he wanted, and Lyn, only about ten paces ahead of them, turned around, looking curious. He dropped his voice. “That’s not it at all.”

“Then how come you’re walking around like you just got rained on instead of just getting sand in your ears?” 

“Because...” Erk sighed, awkwardly, and scrubbed at the back of his neck. “I don’t know, Serra. It’s stupid. Go bother someone else.”

“I don’t want to bother anyone else, I want to bother _you_.” Erk stepped on her foot, and she jabbed him in the side, hard, with her elbow. “Look, Erk, I spend all my time around you and you’re, like, the most dour boring person I’ve ever met, but a lady has to have her straight man, and you’re mine.” He hated how straightforward and serious (and actually an adult) she could be sometimes. “You’re upset.”

“It’s nothing.”

Serra replied with something distinctly unladylike, and Erk shook his head at her.

“It’s just...Pent was my teacher, and I always talked about how I would live up to him. Be famous, and an amazing mage, and powerful. Now I’m just a glorified body guard, and not even that any more, since you don’t really need me to protect you with everyone else around.” Erk scrubbed more sand out of his hair. “I don’t feel like I can stand in front of him and show Lord Pent that I’ve succeeded at anything he taught me.”

“You’re such an idiot,” Serra replied, snorting. “I mean, you’re an incredible mage, and you’re sort of nice to me and that’s hard for anybody! You’ve helped Lyn and Hector and Eliwood from the very beginning, I don’t think you’ve failed him at all.”

“Well...” Erk choked off the words, and looked at Pent. His silver hair was bright in the sunlight, and his thin face tight. He looked so much older than Erk remembered, but then again, didn’t they all? “I don’t want to have failed at his expectations.” That was what it had been. When they had all stumbled into battle to find of all people, Lord Pent, surrounded by bandits, Erk had immediately found every possible excuse to not go grab the older man and pull him behind their advancing lines. No, instead he had ferreted around in the sand for half an hour, digging up treasures people had lost and getting sand even in orifices he didn’t know he had. 

“I don’t want him to look at me and see a failure,” Erk murmured at last, and Serra scrubbed his hair, getting sand in his eyes.

“You’re an idiot,” she said again, and nudged him in the side, this time more gently. “Talk to him later. You can’t just keep avoiding eye contact and pretending that if you stare at the ground long enough, it will swallow you up.” 

She was right. That didn’t mean he was any happier hearing it.

 

 

That night, after everyone had turned in to bed (at last, their minds still spinning with Athos’ revelations), Erk went to Pent and Louise’s door and, awkwardly, stood there. He spent long minutes psyching himself up, only to get interrupted just as he was about to knock when the door pulled open.

Startled, Erk jumped. “Lord Pent!”

“Erk,” Pent replied, looking just as startled as Erk felt. “What are you doing here?” Erk stumbled over several awkward sounds before he managed to reply.

“While protecting Lady Priscilla of House Caerleon, I encountered many...unusual circumstances that brought me to join Lord Eliwood on his journey from Laus.” Boy, was that the understatement of the century on so many different fronts. There was too much to even explain to Pent, and saying _my best friend gave me a bruise on my ribs because I was too embarrassed to talk to you so she dragged me here and is standing around the corner glaring at my back so I’ll admit I exist instead of pretending the floor can swallow me up_ didn’t sound nearly as good. 

“Is that so?” Pent looked at him, and unexpectedly, the Sage’s face broke into a soft smile, the expression gentling the lines beside his eyes and mouth. “Then you have endured much.” Erk scrubbed the back of his neck, wishing there was still sand there so he would have an excuse to quickly do something else.

“Hardly, master...” Erk resisted the urge to scuf his shoe against the floor, turn tail, and run. “And so, do you fight with this army as well?” He almost didn’t want Pent to stay.

“Of course. Nergal is as powerful a sorcerer as my own teacher.” Pent hesitated, and then his shoulders slumped slightly. “I’m sure I offer little assistance on my own, but I do try to do what I can.”

Startled by the self-deprecation Pent was displaying, Erk blinked in disbelief, shaking his head. “How could you say that?!” He managed at last, pride rising in his chest. “Lord Pent, they could have no stronger ally than you! It is an honour for any of them to fight by your side.” Pent watched him, and then began to laugh, shaking his head, a broad smile on his cheeks.

“Well, Erk.” A flush was on his cheekbones, but Erk wouldn’t let Pent play his contributions down. Just earlier that they he wasn’t sure they would have made it safely out of the desert without Pent there as well.

Especially since Erk himself had been pretending nobody else was there and wanting to lay down in the sand and die.

“About Nergal...” Pent began at last, the mirth leaving his face. “You must tell me everything you have heard, no matter how trivial.”

“Of course!” Erk lit up. “I travelled with Lady Lyndis earlier as well, I can tell you everything I know, Lord Pent!”

“Then come inside,” Pent stepped back, still smiling. “Louise and I would love to catch up with you.”

For a moment, Erk hesitated, and looked to the end of the hallway. Serra’s head, pigtails bouncing, was peeking around the edge of the wall.

She gave him two thumbs up.

Erk stepped in the door, and decided to stop being scared.


End file.
